President Kagame threatens war on South Africa over DRC conflict, image: The East African
(The Post News)- Rwandan President Paul Kagame has delivered a strong warning to South Africa, challenging its involvement in the worsening conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). His comments follow South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s attribution of recent attacks in the region to Rwandan forces and the M23 rebel group, which led to the deaths of peacekeepers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) mission.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), President Ramaphosa stated that the violence was driven by “an escalation by the rebel group M23 and Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) militia engaging the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) and attacking peacekeepers from the SADC Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SAMIDRC).”
He attested to the killings of Tanzanian, Malawian, and United Nations Organization Stabilisation Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) peacekeepers. South African forces are positioned in Goma and Sake, where Ramaphosa called the situation “tense, volatile, and unpredictable. “Kagame responded by disputing Ramaphosa’s assertions on X and charging South African officials with distorting their conversations.
“I held two conversations this week with President Ramaphosa on the situation in Eastern DRC, including earlier today. What has been said about these conversations in the media by South African officials and President Ramaphosa himself contains a lot of distortion, deliberate attacks, and even lies,” Kagame wrote.
“The Rwanda Defence Force is an army, not a militia,” he insisted, criticizing the way Rwanda’s military participation was portrayed. Kagame rejected the idea that SAMIDRC was a peacekeeping force, claiming that it was an offensive military operation that worked with anti-Rwanda forces to help the Congolese government fight against its own people.
“SAMIDRC is not a peacekeeping force, and it has no place in this situation. It was authorized by SADC as a belligerent force engaging in offensive combat operations to help the DRC Government fight against its own people, working alongside genocidal armed groups like FDLR which target Rwanda, while also threatening to take the war to Rwanda itself,” he stated.
Kagame added that the East African Community Regional Force, which had been in charge of maintaining peace in the area, was displaced by SAMIDRC’s deployment, undermining diplomatic efforts.
Kagame flatly rejected Ramaphosa’s assertion that he had issued a warning to Rwanda. He said that Ramaphosa had asked Rwanda for assistance in making sure that South African troops had “adequate electricity, food, and water.” “President Ramaphosa has never given a ‘warning’ of any kind, unless it was delivered in his local language which I do not understand,” he said.
Significantly, Kagame alleged that Ramaphosa had admitted that the South African soldiers killed in the conflict were not victims of M23 but rather of the Congolese army. “President Ramaphosa confirmed to me that M23 did not kill the soldiers from South Africa, FARDC did,” he claimed.
In his concluding remarks, Kagame directly challenged South Africa, claiming that their mediation role in the dispute was unjustified. “If South Africa wants to contribute to peaceful solutions, that is well and good, but South Africa is in no position to take on the role of a peacemaker or mediator,” he stated.
He did, however, make it apparent that Rwanda was ready to react if hostilities increased further more. “And if South Africa prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day.”
As both leaders are sticking to their guns, the already unstable situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo could get worse, which could lead to a wider regional conflict.
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